signs of mental disturbance. It became evident that he had lost the bearing of the icebergs, which in form and color endlessly repeated themselves; and the uniformity of the vast field of snow utterly forbade the hope of local landmarks.

5

We had been nearly eighteen hours out without water or food, when a new hope cheered us. I think it was Hans, our Esquimau hunter, who thought he saw a broad sledge track. The drift had nearly effaced it, and we were some of us doubtful at first whether it was not 10 one of those accidental rifts which the gales make in the surface snow. But, as we traced it on to the deep snow among the hummocks, we were led to footsteps; and, following these with religious care, we at last came in sight of a small American flag fluttering from a hummock, and 15 lower down a little banner hanging from a tent pole hardly above the drift. It was the camp of our disabled comrades: we reached it after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours.

The little tent was nearly covered. I was not among 20 the first to come up; but, when I reached the tent curtain the men were standing in silent file on each side of it. With more kindness and delicacy of feeling than is often supposed to belong to sailors, but which is almost characteristic, they intimated their wish that I should go in 25 alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon the darkness, heard before me the burst of welcome gladness that came

"They had

from the four poor fellows stretched on their backs, and then for the first time the cheer outside, my weakness and my gratitude together almost overcame me. expected me they were sure I would come!" 5 We were now fifteen souls; the thermometer seventyfive degrees below freezing point; and our sole accommodation a tent barely able to contain eight persons; more than half our party were obliged to keep from freezing by walking outside while the others slept. We could not 10 halt long. Each of us took a turn of two hours' sleep; and we prepared for our homeward march.

We took with us nothing but the tent, furs to protect the rescued party, and food for a journey of fifty hours. Everything else was abandoned. Two large buffalo bags, 15 each made of four skins, were doubled up, so as to form a sort of sack, lined on each side by fur, closed at the bottom but opened at the top. This was laid on the sledge; the tent, smoothly folded, serving as a floor. The sick, with their limbs sewed up carefully in reindeer skins, were 20 placed upon the bed of buffalo robes in a half-reclining posture; other skins and blanket bags were thrown above them; and the whole litter was lashed together so as to allow but a single opening opposite the mouth for breathing.

25

This necessary work cost us a great deal of time and effort, but it was necessary to the lives of the sufferers. It took us no less than four hours to strip and refresh

them, and then to embale them in the manner I have described. Few of us escaped without frost-bitten fingers, for the thermometer was fifty-five degrees below zero, and a slight wind added to the severity of the cold.

-ELISHA KENT KANE: Arctic Explorations.

hummocks, ridges or hills of ice; pemmican, meat dried and pounded into cakes; eider down, soft feathers of eider ducks; uniformity, sameness, regularity; abandoned, given up entirely; fatigue, weariness.

What were the special dangers to be overcome? What gives you the best idea of the terrible cold? What facts have you learned about the food, dress, method of travel, etc., of the Arctic explorers? What deeds of heroism are described ? What kindness and delicacy was shown by the sailors?

Spelling. Uniformity, abandoned, gratitude, reindeer, sufferers, fatigue.

Grammar: The Predicate Adjective. - You have learned that adjectives are used to describe, or to point out more definitely, the persons or things denoted by the noun or pronoun, and that therefore they modify or limit the meaning of nouns or pronouns.

The adjective may limit the meaning of the noun in two ways: 1. It may stand close to the noun which it limits:

This was our first landmark.

The men, swollen and haggard, came into the cabin.

2. It may form part of the assertion about the subject:-
He was swollen and haggard.

When the adjective is used as part of the predicate, to complete the assertion about the subject, it is called a predicate adjective.

Select the adjectives in the following sentences, and state which are close to the nouns which they modify and which are predicate adjectives.

The story was fearful.

A fearful story was told.

The half-frozen men were rescued.

The men were half frozen.

Their appearance was unexpected.

Their unexpected appearance frightened us.

Write five sentences, placing in each an adjective which shall stand close to the noun which it limits.

Write five sentences, using the same adjectives as parts of the predicate.

85

THE RESCUE (Concluded)

OUR march for the first six hours was very cheering. We made by vigorous pulls and lifts nearly a mile an hour, and reached the new floes before we were absolutely weary. Our sledge sustained the trial admirably. Ohlsen, 5 restored by hope, walked steadily at the leading belt of the sledge lines; and I began to feel certain of reaching our halfway station of the day before, where we had left. our tent. But we were still nine miles from it, when, almost without warning, we all became aware of an alarm10 ing failure of our energies.

I was of course familiar with the benumbed and almost lethargic sensation of extreme cold; and once, when exposed for some hours in the midwinter of Baffin's Bay, I had experienced symptoms which I compared to the 15 paralysis of an electric shock. But I had treated the

sleepy comfort of freezing as a romance. I had evidence now to the contrary.

Bonsall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came to me, begging permission to sleep: "they were not cold; the wind did not enter them now; a little sleep was all 5 they wanted." Presently Hans was found nearly stiff under a drift; and Thomas, bolt upright, had his eyes closed, and could hardly articulate. At last John Blake threw himself on the snow, and refused to rise. They did not complain of feeling cold; but it was in vain that I 10 wrestled, boxed, ran, argued, jeered, or reprimanded: an immediate halt could not be avoided.

We pitched our tent with much difficulty. Our hands were too powerless to strike a fire: we were obliged to do without water or food. Even the spirits (whisky) had 15 frozen at the men's feet, under all the coverings. We put Bonsall, Ohlsen, Thomas, and Hans, with the other sick men, well inside the tent, and crowded in as many others as we could. Then, leaving the party in charge of Mr. McGary, with orders to come on after four hours' rest, I 20 pushed ahead with William Godfrey, who volunteered to be my companion. My aim was to reach the halfway tent, and thaw some ice and pemmican before the others arrived.

The floe was of level ice, and the walking excellent. 25 I cannot tell how long it took us to make the nine miles; for we were in a strange sort of stupor, and had little idea